


In a Maze

by dasfreefree, imagine_that_haikyuu



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Corn Mazes, F/M, Female!Reader - Freeform, Fluff and Humor, Halloween, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:20:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24796078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dasfreefree/pseuds/dasfreefree, https://archiveofourown.org/users/imagine_that_haikyuu/pseuds/imagine_that_haikyuu
Summary: The Karasuno Volleyball Club does some team bonding at a haunted corn maze. However, the boys get spooked early on, leaving Ukai to his own devices until he bumps into you.
Relationships: Ukai Keishin/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 120





	In a Maze

**Author's Note:**

> This scenario was originally posted on October 31, 2017 to our [tumblr](https://imagine-that-haikyuu.tumblr.com/post/166997731068/halloween-ask-ukai-being-dragged-to-a-cornfield). Some edits have been made since then.
> 
> Writer: Rachel Lauren
> 
> vball-baes-bball-babes asked: Halloween ask: Ukai being dragged to a cornfield maze by the boys and he ends up separated from them only to find his old crush from high school lost and helps her. I'll leave it to you on whether you want to make it spookier by there being a real (but not malevolent) ghost in the maze or if it's just hokey and they laugh together while trying to get out or maybe work together to scare the boys? However you want to do it! Thanks and Happy Halloween!

Ukai thinks himself a total hypocrite. Before entering this corn maze with the team, he made sure to instruct them all to stay together. Yet, here he was on his own with nothing but a dim flashlight in hand.

Only fifteen minutes or so into their journey in, something spooked the kids. He doesn’t know exactly what, since he and Takeda trailed behind the pack. But out of nowhere someone screamed (probably Hinata) and sent the rest of the team already on edge into a scramble.

Except for Tsukishima, who seemed rather unphased by this. He only started running when Yamaguchi called out to him in fear that “it’s gonna get you!”, to which the tall blonde clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes before groaning, “Fine” and heading off.

“Those idiots,” Ukai grumbled.

“They’ll be fine,” Takeda said. “They all have maps of the maze with them.”

“We should probably try to keep an eye on them, though. I’d rather not deal with angry parents later.”

So he and Takeda split up. Not their brightest idea–literally–as Ukai’s flashlight now seems to dim and flicker more by the minute. He put in fresh batteries before leaving for the maze too. When the light cuts completely, he slaps it a few times to try and restore it, but to no avail.

After a string of muttered curses, he throws his head back. Now would be the perfect time to light a cigarette, but the last thing he wants to do is to accidentally set the place ablaze. Well, the only thing left to do is to try and find another group wandering through the maze to help him out. In the dark, he can barely make out the path before him nor the cornstalk boundaries; it’ll be a slow process. Ukai sighs, lifts his arms up to out in front of him, and takes his first steps.

“Easy does it. It’s not so bad like this,” he tells himself. Even though he moves akin to a toddler first learning to walk now, he finds his groove. As long as there aren’t any rocks or fallen cornstalks, he’ll be fine. A solid few minutes pass and he likes to think he’s made significant progress.

And then he sees a pool of light shine from around the corner of a bend.

“Hey! Stay there!” he calls out, taking surer steps towards the source now that he can see better.

They let out a small yelp, followed by a shaky, “W-who’s there?”

Ukai takes another step, only to be greeted by a bright beam of light in his eyes. He squints and brings his hands up to shield his eyes. “Can you maybe not shine that right in my face?” he says.

“Don’t you dare come any closer! I have mace and a itchy trigger finger!”

“What?! I’m not gonna hurt you!”

“That’s what they all say.”

“Look, my flashlight’s out of juice and I’m just lost and separated from my group, okay?”

A brief silence passes. 

“Tell me who you are first.”

“Ukai Keishin,” he sighs. He would have to introduce himself sooner or later, but being ordered like this made it feel like a chore.

The light lowers from his face finally and remains fixed on the ground. He stares down again to adjust to the dark once more.

“Ukai…?” they repeat, a little bewildered. While he’s still staring at the ground, they approach him.

“Yeah, that’s what I sa–”

When he looks up, he finds you staring at him with a curious expression. 

Oh, he could remember your face anywhere even in this poor lighting. There was no way he could forget the face of the girl he spent most of high school crushing on.

“(L/N)?” he murmurs.

“It really is you!” you gasp with a relieved smile. You place a hand to your chest and let out a sigh. “And here I thought that some creep was trying to come for me. Thank goodness it’s you instead. Sorry about earlier, but I definitely didn’t recognize you at first.”

Eight years later, you still give him butterflies in his stomach. Ukai spends a brief moment lost in your face; you’re still as pretty as ever, but he’d reckon you blossomed even more after high school. When he realizes, he’s been staring, he shakes his head.

“So, uh, what are you doing here?” he asks.

“I come with my cousins every year, but we got separated,” you admit. You look to the ground, rubbing one arm with another. “Something, um…”

“Spooked you?”

“Yeah. You heard about the ghosts in the maze?”

“Nah. My kids ran too when something scared them.” He doesn’t resent his phrasing until he sees your face fall. “Not _kid_ kids. They’re teenagers.” This doesn’t make it any better. In fact, you look horrified now. “Not _my_ kids. The volleyball team I coach!”

You press a hand to your chest again and let out another sigh of relief. “You have to stop scaring me like this. I was this close to believing that you were secretly a preteen dad all these years, Ukai-kun.”

A moment passes before the two of you smile and laugh over this. Motioning him to follow you, you set along the path again while catching up. It brings him a certain joy to know that you’re doing well after high school. You were always the type he guessed would grow into their own after graduation. When you mention that you moved back home for work, his heart skips a beat.

He hates and loves that in eight years, nothing has changed with how you make him feel.

After he gets you up to speed on his life post-high school, you stop in your tracks.

“Did you hear that?” He shakes his head and you step closer to him until you’re close enough to press your body to his arm. All the while you’re looking around for something in the distance, but Ukai can’t focus on anything other than how close you are to him right now. There’s a faint tremble in the beam of light coming from your flashlight. It’s only then that he realizes your hand is quivering. “There’s been rumors going around that this maze is really haunted by ghosts.”

He scoffs, “Come on. You really think that?”

You turn back to him, eyes widening when you realize how little space stands between the two of you. Tucking stray hairs behind your ear, you take a step back and lower your gaze to the ground again.

“You’re right. I’m a grown-ass woman. It’s probably just some kids playing a prank.”

As if on cue, a dry stalk snaps underfoot from inside the corn. You shriek at the noise and take his arm, hiding your face in the fabric of his sweatshirt.

Seventeen-year-old Ukai would have loved this. No, he’s not fooling himself: he’s loving this cliché get-together now at the ripe age of twenty-six. And he’s about to play into this damn shoujo manga trope too, even if it means he’s going to cut it short and sooner than he’d like.

“H-hey! We’re gonna get out of here, okay? Give me your flashlight,” he says. Not lifting your head from his arm, you hand it over. Ukai gives you a gentle nudge. You step away from him, and not a second later his hand is clasping yours and he’s taking off.

The sudden change in pace throws you off-balance into a stumble, but you regain your footing soon enough. Ukai leads you through the twists and turns in the dark, hand holding onto yours with just enough strength to not slip. As you run and your adrenaline kicks in, you let out a laugh. It starts small but grows into unbridled giggles as you turn a corner.

And there’s the exit.

Ukai’s momentum slows as you make your way out into the open air again. As he slows to a stop, he releases your hand, placing both of his hands on his knees. He’s starting to regret the smoking right now as he practically hacks up a lung, but the regret fades away in a near instant at the sight of you smiling in complete awe.

“That was amazing, Ukai-kun! That…that was the fastest I’ve ever gotten through this maze,” you cheer. He stands up straight only to be met by you throwing your arms around his neck. Your voice is a low whisper now, “Thank you.”

He knows his face is reddening, but he could get used to this. Ukai clears his throat. “Oh, uh, it was noth–”

“Hey, is that our coach? And he’s hugging some pretty lady?”

Both your bodies stiffen at the interruption. You push yourself off of him. Some distance away, a group of teenage boys are either staring or trying their best not to stare at Ukai and you. He rubs the back of his head sheepishly. Tucking your hair behind your ear again, you look down and away. Your gaze returns to him again quicker this time, though.

“Sorry,” you mumble. It’s easy to miss the small smile on your face, but it doesn’t go unnoticed.

“Don’t be sorry, (L/N). You can just make it up to me over dinner sometime. Tomorrow night, maybe?” he says without thinking it through. The words just kind of slip from his mouth.

Your jaw drops. “Oh, so you think you’re slick, huh?” Despite the dramatic show, Ukai can tell that you’re pulling his leg. “Because I’d love to. I’ll swing by the shop at seven.”

You laugh and he laughs, and he feels like a teenager again. After bidding you a goodnight, he turns to head back to the team and face the endless yet inevitable stream of questions to come.

“Wait, Ukai-kun?” you call out to him. He stops walking and turns back to you. You approach him again, getting close like before. Something soft presses to his cheek for split second and it doesn’t hit him until you’ve pulled away that he realize those were your lips. Those lips which are now whispering in his ear once more, “Thanks again. See you tomorrow.”

Ukai remains wide-eyed and stationary while you walk away. He doesn’t remember when he brought his hand up to his cheek where you kissed him or how long he stood there like that, but after Hinata shouts, “Coach!” for the third time, he snaps out of his stupor.

Maybe the real haunt of the maze was you: the bewitching old flame who recast her spell on him. But not all spells are bad.


End file.
